The American Israel Public Affairs Committee was forced to clarify that it had not actually un-endorsed Florida Representative Randy Fine for his grotesque statements wishing starvation on Palestinians.

AIPAC responded Tuesday to a Times of Israel report claiming that the group appeared to have “dropped” its endorsement of Fine, after he went missing from the group’s database of pro-Israel candidates.

“This reporting is based on an unsourced speculative piece,” AIPAC wrote in a statement on X. “We will be endorsing candidates for the 2026 election throughout the cycle. Current endorsees for 2026 so far are listed on the AIPAC-PAC website.

“As Rep. Fine was elected only in April, consideration of his endorsement will take place later in the cycle, as is the case with many other freshmen members of Congress,” the statement continued.

It turns out that it was simply wishful thinking to believe that the pro-Israel action group would ever draw the line at cheerleading famine—or advocating for violence against protesters.

But AIPAC’s response doesn’t quite add up. It’s not clear why the group would choose only to list endorsees for 2026, and why Fine wouldn’t be grandfathered in after earning the group’s endorsement just four months ago. After all, the group did pour more than $126,000 into Fine’s campaign, according to FEC filings. Now they say they need more time to decide?

Fine’s absence on AIPAC’s list was first observed by Usamah Andrabi, the communications director for Justice Democrats, a political action group working to see progressive Democrats elected to office.

Donald Trump claims that his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein ended after the pedophilic sex trafficker “stole” several of the president’s underage employees.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One Tuesday, Trump said that he had confronted Epstein about hiring away underage girls on his payroll at Mar-a-Lago.

“Epstein has a certain reputation obviously. I’m just curious, were some of the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?” asked one reporter.

“Well, I don’t want to say, but everyone knows the people that were taken, and the concept of taking people that work for me is bad. But that story has been pretty well out there, and the answer is yes, they were,” Trump said. “People were taken out of the spa.

“Hired, by him, in other words—gone,” Trump continued, referring to Epstein. “Other people would come and complain, ‘This guy is taking people from the spa.’ I didn’t know that. And then when I heard about it, I told him, I said, ‘Listen, we don’t want you taking our people.’ Whether it was spa or not spa, I don’t want him taking people.

“And he was fine, and then not too long after that he did it again and I said, ‘Out of here,’” he added.

“Did one of the stolen persons—did that include Virginia Giuffre?” asked another reporter, referring to one of Epstein’s earliest and most prominent accusers.

“Um, I don’t know. I think she worked at the spa,” Trump said. “I think so. I think that was one of the people. He stole her. And by the way, she had no complaints about us, as you know. None whatsoever.”

Trump: People were taken out of the spa, hired by Epstein… I told him we don’t want you taking our people, whether it’s spa or not spa. He did it again, I said out of here.

Reporter: Was one of the stolen people Virginia Giuffre?

Trump: I think so. He stole her. pic.twitter.com/sLoDdKNasn

The anecdote partially corroborates Giuffre’s account of being abducted in 2000 by Ghislaine Maxwell at Mar-a-Lago, where she worked at the time as a pool attendant. But Trump continued to maintain ties to Epstein for years after the alleged confrontation.

In a 2002 New York magazine profile of Epstein, Trump said he had known Epstein for 15 years and referred to him as a “terrific guy.”

“It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side,” Trump said at the time.

It wasn’t until 2004 that the longtime friends would fall out over a Palm Beach real estate deal.

Giuffre committed suicide in April.

Trump has previously claimed he cut off contact with Epstein after the financier was convicted in 2009 for soliciting underage prostitutes, referring to Epstein as a “creep.” But the pair of Manhattan socialites shared a long and apparently cozy history together.

Prior to his death, Epstein described himself as one of Trump’s “closest friends.” The duo were named and photographed together on several occassions—including at Trump’s second wedding. Trump reportedly flew on Epstein’s jets between Palm Beach and New York at least seven times, and the first time that Trump slept with his now-wife Melania was reportedly aboard Epstein’s plane, nicknamed the “Lolita Express.”

Earlier this month, the former president and chief operating officer of Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, Jack O’Donnell, revealed that he had caught Trump and Epstein in the late 1980s shepherding underage girls into the establishment.

“They were pretty good buddies,” O’Donnell told CNN, recalling that he warned Trump against spending more time with Epstein.

This story has been updated.

Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted co-conspirator of notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, explicitly appealed to President Donald Trump for clemency on Tuesday.

In a response to the House Oversight Committee’s........

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